Skip to main content

Christmas is Coming

Advent is upon us and Christmas has been coming slowly to our house as well. This is the first year I feel like we are able to really start some traditions that will carry on for years to come. I think that is because we are staying on the Island for Christmas this year and Joash is old enough to really get it.

So we have made Cut-out Sugar Cookies....

He was a great helper.

Joash helped with every step of the process.
 We got our Christmas tree yesterday...in the rain. There is a Christmas tree farm not to far away, so we took the whole family yesterday and hunted for the perfect tree. It was a bit rainy, but we all had boots and rain coats on, so we still had a good time.
 This tree is our Advent Tree. We are going through the book Unwrapping the Greatest Gift by Ann Voskamp. It is a lovely book and one that we intend to use for years to come. The ornaments on this tree go with the reading for each day. They were some free printable pages from her website. This year I colored them, but in the future I hope the kids will do that.
 And we are also doing 25 books for Christmas. I went through our book collection and pulled every book that had any sort of Christmas connection at all  and then got the rest I needed at Value Village. So every morning after the kids are all dressed and ready for the day, Joash picks out a book, unwraps it and we read it together. It has been a fun little tradition and one that I intend to continue as well.
And that is about it. Joash has his very first Christmas program this coming Friday, so that should be fun. It is our overall goal to show our kids that Jesus is what Christmas is really all about and we have had a lot of fun so far doing that.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

This Is Where It Ends by Cindy K. Sproles

When Minerva Jane Jenkins was just fourteen years old, she married a man who moved her to the mountains. He carried with him a small box, which he told her held gold. And when he died fifty years later, he made her promise to tell no one about the box or the treasure it contained. Now at ninety-four, Minerva is nearing the end of what has sometimes been a lonely life. But she's kept her promise. Even so, rumors of hidden gold have a way of spreading, and Minerva is visited by a reporter, Del Rankin, who wants to know more of her story. As an unlikely friendship develops, Minerva is tempted to reveal her secret to Del. But the truth of what's really buried in the box may be hidden even from her. I really enjoyed this book. It is quality historical fiction with a strong narrative voice. I really liked the characters and it was interesting to see how all of the secrets they carried with them affected them. I enjoyed the relationships between the characters and how the setting was

The Wind Blows in Sleeping Grass by Katie Powner

A fter years of drifting, fifty-year-old Pete Ryman has settled down with his potbellied pig, Pearl, in the small Montana town of Sleeping Grass--a place he never expected to see again. It's not the life he dreamed of, but there aren't many prospects for a high-school dropout like him. Elderly widow Wilma Jacobsen carries a burden of guilt over her part in events that led to Pete leaving Sleeping Grass decades ago. Now that he's back, she's been praying for the chance to make things right, but she never expected God's answer to leave her flat on her face--literally--and up to her ears in meddling. When the younger sister Pete was separated from as a child shows up in Sleeping Grass with her eleven-year-old son, Pete is forced to face a past he buried long ago, and Wilma discovers her long-awaited chance at redemption may come at a higher cost than she's willing to pay. I really enjoyed this book. The characters in it were interesting and unique. While some thing

The Best Summer of Our Lives by Rachel Hauck

  Twenty years ago, the summer of '77 was supposed to be the best summer of Summer Wilde's life. She and her best friends, Spring, Autumn, and Snow--the Four Seasons--had big plans. But those plans never had a chance. After a teenage prank gone awry, the Seasons found themselves on a bus to Tumbleweed, "Nowhere," Oklahoma, to spend eight weeks as camp counselors. All four of them arrived with hidden secrets and buried fears, and the events that unfolded in those two months forever altered their friendships, their lives, and their futures. Now, thirtysomething, Summer is at a crossroads. When her latest girl band leaves her in a motel outside Tulsa, she is forced to face the shadows of her past. Returning to the place where everything changed, she soon learns Tumbleweed is more than a town she never wanted to see again. It's a place for healing, for reconciling the past with the present, and for finally listening to love's voice. This was an enjoyable book to r